Over recent years, digital cameras have been rapidly growing in worldwide popularity. Such cameras provide many advantages over the conventional film camera. For example, digital cameras do not require the time and financial expenditures of conventional cameras in terms of film development. Digital cameras are designed to be used in conjunction with a wide range of sophisticated computer graphics processing packages not available for conventional film cameras. Display devices associated with certain digital cameras advantageously provide the photographer with an enhanced ability to frame desired images and to review pictures just taken.
Digital cameras, however, are not without their disadvantages. Conventional high resolution digital cameras are currently very costly and employ expensive memory media which are capable of only capturing a relatively limited number of pictures. Such cameras may utilize a flash memory module having a storage capacity of, for example, 2 to 32 megabytes. These memory modules become increasingly more expensive as the storage capacity increases.
A high resolution digital camera with a conventional flash memory module may only have a storage capacity to permit a photographer to take a very limited number of pictures such as, for example, a half dozen or even fewer pictures. The vacationing photographer may choose to undertake a major expense to be assured of having enough memory modules to record memorable events from a two week vacation.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, this digital camera shortcoming is overcome by a hand-held, battery-powered portable device for transferring data between a flash memory module and a mass storage device. The mass storage device may be able to store, for example, the contents of the equivalent of hundreds of flash memory modules.
In accordance with one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the contents of a flash memory module inserted into an insertion memory port in the portable hand-held device is downloaded under operator control to a mass storage device in the form of a fixed or removable hard disk drive. Thereafter, the memory module is reinitialized so that it may be immediately reused in its associated camera.
The present invention also more broadly addresses problems related to the use of conventional flash memory modules in a wide range of devices. One of the problems often confronting users of portable digital memory, including for example flash memory cards such as the SmartMedia, MultiMediaCard or Memory Stick cards, is the ultimate movement of the data on them to a more permanent, a larger, a more accessible, or a more conventional storage medium. This is true, for example, as described above for consumers with digital cameras that store digital images on flash memory cards who desire to move the images to a large capacity hard disk, or other storage medium, to consolidate and “permanently” store the images, and to clear the memory card for reuse.
At present, the most typical means by which users satisfy this need is using their digital computer to copy the data from memory cards to disk or other storage accessible by the computer.
The illustrative embodiments of the present invention provide other means, often easier and more portable than a computer, to achieve this task. Various embodiments of the invention are designed to be particularly useful for users on vacation or “in the field” who may not have access to an operating computer.
As used herein in conjunction with some of the exemplary embodiments, the repository in its most general form shall often be termed the Large Capacity Digital Storage Unit (LCDSU). It is the medium to which various embodiments of the invention moves data, and is designed to encompass any form of mass digital storage device and associated media, including for example, without limitation:                media in which the data is stored magnetically—including for example, tapes, floppy disks, and hard disks;        media in which the data is stored optically—such as CDs, Magnetic Optical (Mos) and DVDs;        media in which the data is stored electrically or electronically—such as various solid state memory devices;        media in which the data is stored using any other aspect of the electromagnetic spectrum, including fluorescence, or other type of energy enabled storage and retrieval;        media in which data is stored using quantum mechanical aspects of the storage medium;        media in which data is stored using biological principles;        media in which the data is stored by mechanically altering the media;        media permanently attached to the read/write apparatus (such as a hard disk);        media “removable” from the read/write apparatus, such as floppy disks, tapes, CDs, DVDs and ZIP disks        media in which digital information is stored any other way.        
The above-described features and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.